Various systems have been used in the preliminary treatment of fluids in industrial and agricultural processes for adjusting pH. Such systems have been used as a preliminary treatment of industrial rinsing water, systems of industrial waste water treatment in various production processes, and in agriculture technologies, such as watering, stock breeding, and water supply utilities. Many such processes utilize chemical reagents resulting great inconvenience in operation and large amounts of solid deposit as a result of the acidity change. Also noted have been inaccuracy in predicting and obtaining acidity values.
Alternatively, electrochemical systems have been used. These systems generally include the steps of flowing a liquid through inter-electrode spaces, defining cathodic and anodic zones by means of a membrane and running a current connection to the zones to effect a pH exchange upon the liquid. Examples of such a system is disclosed in the U.S. Pat. No. 4,936,962 to Hatzidimitriu issued Jun. 26, 1990. The Hatzidimitiu system provides a process to adjust the acidity of a flowable fluid by electrodialysis in a cell containing membrane pairs comprising a biopolar membrane and an ion selective membrane. The U.S. Pat. No. 4,391,680 to Mani et al, issued Jul. 5, 1983 discloses a two-compartment water splitter having alternating cation and bipolar membranes used to remove alkali metal cations from an aqueous alkali metal chloride solution to produce an acidified salt solution. U.S. Pat. No. 4,284,492 to Karn, issued Aug. 18, 1991 discloses a reverse osmosis electrodialysis assembly having osmotice membranes of anionic-cationic bilaminate ion-exchange composition and having electrodes supplying electrical current which effect water-splitting at the membrane surfaces to produce acidity in an osmotic feed stream to prevent salt precipitation. Various other patents have issued relating to the use of two compartment or multi-compartment electrodialtic water-splitters and methods of using the same.
A problem has arisen because there is a lack of stability in the electrolitically produced fluid having the adjusted pH resulting from processing. Also, prior art systems have low efficiency due to the high power consumption, non-uniformity of acidity change over a whole volume, destruction of liquid in the zone of electrode location, low accuracy of acid change, and inadequate ecological reliability of the process.
It is therefore desirable to develop an electrolitic system for adjusting the pH of an aqueous flowable fluid having an increased efficiency level of the process of acidity change, reduction of specific power consumption for the process of acidity change, increase in ecological purity of the process, and an increase of accuracy level of the acidity change process.